Confessions Of An Overeater

You've lost weight, great.  Now what?  Maintenance is a dance.  It is a dance of trying new things, keeping what works and being realistic about what doesn't work.

Life had sent me an invitation to evolve, message received.  But nothing was working.  Listen today to find out why we need to know who we are to respond to life's invitation to evolve. 

How do we know when life is sending us an invitation to evolve?  It finds us exactly where we are, it contains the potential to disrupt our life and those around us, and it does not give up.

None of us know the end of our story from the beginning.  But knowing where our story begins can help us to write a new story.  Join me today to learn the beginning of the story I am telling next.

The last time you heard from me, it was on a ski trip in the Alps.....then nothing for six months.  Curious about where I've been?  I've done what I set out to do - stop overeating - and lost 60 pounds.  I always thought losing weight would be THE happy ending.  Turns out, it's just the beginning.

While I was off skiing last week, I kept thinking about the word fluency.  Is it just limited to language?  What is fluency?  Why is it important?  What does it have to do with changing our eating habits?

January is over, but the work never stops.  Today, we're talking about food indulgences at the cinema.  Would you eat a food if the label said these 2,500 calories will make your body swell, gain three pounds overnight, cause sore gums and digestive distress?  Being curious about the food we eat, and the impact it has on our bodies is my passion - weight loss is sometimes a byproduct of that curiosity.

What are the benefits of being an insulin sensitive person?  Being able to fully enjoy your life at any eating situation is top on my list.  Listen today to hear about a festive Burns supper that left me forever altered.

I am fascinated by hormones.  They are sophisticated messengers in our amazing human body.  Many of us are familiar with hormones - thyroid, estrogen, testosterone, cortisol, adrenaline.  But the hormone that has had the greatest impact in my life?  Insulin.  Without even being aware of the powerful affect it was having keeping me stuck in a decades long cycle of overeating.

What does a chance drive by tell us about learning new things?  When we first encounter new information, it can be hard to process.  When I first learned about insulin resistance, I had more questions than answers.  Every time I study the information, my understanding and ability to apply the concept deepens.  Today, we're starting a series revisiting the science of glucose, glucose monitoring and insulin resistance.

Many of us engage in excess behaviors that we want to stop - overeating, overdrinking, overspending, but we struggle to change the behavior.  Changing our mindset can help us change stubborn behavior patterns.  Changing our mindset is just committing to telling a new story in our own brain.  Listen today to learn how to tell a new story in your life.

Looking back over the last 18 months, I can see clearly what worked to lose 50 pounds.  It is a list that is unique to me, but contains many unexpected lessons.  

There is much to celebrate this year end - I've lost 50 pounds and I've recorded a year of podcasts.  Today's episode is just for fun - a look at all the things I tried that did not work for losing weight or changing my eating habits.

I've accomplished so much this year - I've lost 50 pounds, I recorded 52 episodes and I reached over 1,000 people.  I've recorded these episodes in real time, once a week over a year.  As such, no one was more surprised than me to unwrap my best gift this year - being someone who struggles with overeating.  No return receipts needed for this gift - I'm keeping it.

There is much joy this year end reflecting on what I've accomplished - I've lost 50 pounds and I've recorded a year's worth of podcasts.  But there are also other emotions - sadness about the prison of overeating that I still remember, empathy for those who are still trapped in that prison, and anger for a diet culture that preaches weight loss is a simple equation of calories in, calories out.  What do I do with those emotions?  Tune in today, and meet the world's first glucose data evangelist.

Are you searching for the perfect gift this year?  How about a sense of purpose?  It sounds so beneficial - something we all need.  We know it feels terrible to feel like we don't have a sense of purpose, and that angst can lead to overeating.  But guess what?  We are purposed.  We don't need anything outside of ourselves to live our purpose.  

I set out to solve the puzzle of my overeating with this podcast.  This led me on a journey to unravel everything I thought I knew, and everything I thought I was.  Here I am now, 49 episodes later, 49 pounds lost.  That unraveling has shown me the reasons why I overeat.  I hold those reasons like precious gems - and decide if I want to be a person who continues to overeat in response to those reasons.

Every year around this time a funky mood rolls into my emotional life, a holiday mood.  What is it that is challenging about this time of year for some of us?  What do I want the holidays to be about?  How can I take excellent care of myself no matter the holiday mood?  How do I want to get ready for the holidays?  Hint - it's not to be found in creating a longer to do list.

What is the role of exercise for weight loss?  If you are like me, it's counter productive to weight loss.  My history with exercise was sporadic and intense, and totally ineffective for weight loss, for reasons that surprised me.  Join me today for my personal exercise history and what I am doing now.

Some days, I flirt with 145 on the scale, and I can say I've lost 50 pounds.  In this last phase of active weight loss, I rigorously examine the causes of my overeating.  This allows me to anticipate events that have led to overeating in the past.  Lucky me, I learned this skill just in time for election season.  Elections are many things, but never a reason to overeat.